Blountville Man “Riding for Hope” in Statewide Cancer Campaign

By Josh Smith
Anchor / WJHL
Published: July 3, 2008

Looking at his map, even John Drury is forced to admit it.  “That’s a long way,” he said, eyeing the road from Bristol, Tennessee, to Memphis, Tennessee.

Starting August 15th, Drury will ride on a custom-built bicycle to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital where he hopes to make a $25,000 donation for pediatric cancer research.  “I don’t accept that we can’t with our technology find a cure,“ Drury said.

It’s an unexpected journey.  But for John Drury, the unexpected has become the norm.

After flying jets for the military in Vietnam and Desert Storm, Drury was diagnosed with Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma in 1998.  Ten years, eight rounds of chemotherapy, and a stem cell transplant later, Drury is now in remission, but he’s still haunted by the words of another cancer patient he met while they both were undergoing treatment.

“One of the little girls taking chemo wasn’t doing well and she was really upset and said, ‘Well, I’ll just get on my bike and ride to St. Jude,” Drury said.  “Well, I didn’t think a thing about it until one night when I woke up and thought, hey, get on your bike and ride to St. Jude.“

At first, that seemed impossible because previous cancer treatments damaged his balance, preventing him from riding a two-wheel bike.  A custom bike with 127 gears solved that, and Drury launched what calls “Riding for Hope”

“I can’t go hold their hand, and you can’t go hold their hand, but we can get right to the base level and say, ‘here’s your hope and we’re going to find a cure that works for you.’“

With the raw honesty of a military fighter pilot, Drury holds no punches when comparing his plight to the plight of children with cancer.  “It makes little difference in the big scheme of things if a 58 year old man dies,” Drury said.  “But it makes a huge difference if an 8 year old child dies because they have all those years to contribute, to live.  How do we give it to them?  We give them a reason to have hope.“ 

You can learn more John’s journey through is website: http://www.ridingforhope.com